COLORADO SPRINGS– Feeling stressed out? It may be the pollution. Pollution can take many forms— air and water pollution are familiar and known to cause adverse effects on health, but what about noise? Noise pollution, from airplanes, highways, and trains, can also negatively impact health. Colorado College lays next to a major highway, railway, and an air force base. I went to the CC dorms Macgregor and Bemis, where west facing rooms expose students to onslaughts of noise from both Interstate 25 and the BNSF train.
“I have to sleep with a fan.” CC sophomore David Grubb said—not to cool down but to drown out the sounds of truck traffic. “Even then, the highway still bothers me. I have to hike somewhere in the mountains or something to find silence.”
But not everybody is annoyed by the noise. Another sophomore named Isabella Flores called the highway din “peaceful”. Even so, on a subconscious level, your health might still be affected. Noise level can lead to health problems by increasing levels of the stress hormone cortisol, according to a NHI study. High presence of cortisol can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.